Helene Lebel, T-4 Victim

Helene Lebel, raised as a Catholic in Vienna, Austria, first showed signs of mental illness when she was nineteen. Her condition worsened until she had to give up her law studies and her job as a legal secretary. In 1936 she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and was placed in Vienna’s Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital. Two years later, Germany annexed Austria. Helene’s condition had improved at Steinhof, and her parents were led to believe that she would soon be moved to a hospital in a nearby town. In fact, Helene was transferred to a former prison in Brandenburg Germany. There she was undressed, subjected to a physical examination, and then led into a “shower room” where she was killed with deadly gas.